The Brandcenter kicked-off our Friday Forum series last week with Wendy Clark, the recently hired CEO of DDB.
She was really good. Watching her present, it was easy to see why she has been so succesful. She’s clearly playing on another level.
She spoke about the work that DDB is doing, and what it’s been like to take over as CEO there. She also spoke about her time at Coke, including the call she got from Matt Weiner when he wanted to use Hilltop in Mad Men. No spoilers.
She also had some great advice about going through life and career. This bit stuck with me:
“You can be a worse them or a better you.”
This is great advice for anyone in creative business. Advertising in particular is filled with a wide variety of extremely talented people who are broken in their own unique ways.
Trying to mimic someone’s particular and personal genius will only get you so far. The secret lies in finding your own peculiarities and learning how to use them to be the best version of yourself that you can be.
Which is why I like to drink coffee at the gym.